Back on the Firebrand, I met up with the others in the virtual space. “Before we really go into it,” said Bruzigan, “I’m sure Lheticus isn’t the only one eager to hear the details of Mewi’s class evolution.” Bruzigan was definitely right about that. In fact, he himself wasn’t bothering to contain his excitement, speaking more and more enthusiastically as he continued.

“After all, even the Federation as a whole has very few Gold classes known on record. In fact, even in terms of our knowledge of the Class Evolver item, we have no record of a successful use of one at Gold level by any citizen. That isn’t to say it’s never happened, but Mewiabu is the first ever to do so in the Federation’s actual service.

So Mewi, tell us about your new class.”

Mewi took a deep breath. “It’s called Flowmaster. It actually has around the same number of Class Traits my original class had, but they’re all massively upgraded. Like the Bubble Mage class, it grants bonuses to my use of support and control-oriented spells, but the 25% reduction in Magic Power when casting offensive spells is gone. Actually, it’s more than gone—now it’s a 100% increase in Magic Power for buff and debuff spells, and a 20% increase for offensive spells.

Most of the other traits I’ll need to train a lot, to change my battle style to use them effectively. But the most amazing thing about this class is...it’s a three element class.”

“No WAY!” said Arvallei.

“You gotta be kidding me,” said Anna.

“Are you freaking serioooooous!” said I, putting my hands on Mewi’s shoulders and jumping up and down. Bruzigan and Ri’legh could only stare. Mewi showed his status to the group, proving what he said was true. In fact, the 3 elements he now had access to were Water, which he’d had before, Wind, and Space.

There was a caveat, though. Though his body’s mana network had been majorly upgraded, it didn’t allow for perfect casting in all three elements. Casting times for spells themselves weren’t affected, but he had to take a few seconds—at least—to switch between elements. In other words, he couldn’t cast a Water spell, then immediately cast a Wind or Space element spell. There was also a cooldown period of ten entire seconds during which he wouldn’t be able to switch to another element after already switching once.

Even with the drawbacks though, it had amazing potential. Bruzigan was almost as excited as I was.

“In all public record, the existence of triple element caster classes is nothing but speculation,” Bruzigan muttered rapidly at first before becoming louder, “we’ll have to keep this classified. This will require a whole new personalized training program for Mewi. This is going to transform the entire team!”

He finally caught himself. “Yes. Things are going to be changing for us from here on out, and not just because of Mewi’s new class. The acquisition of the top-quality evolution item, in my considered opinion, warrants a change in our overall mission strategy.

The Federation does possess information on the effects of evolution items, classified at the highest levels. I myself was only allowed access to the relevant files on a need-to-know basis—only because this team now possesses one.

The vital factor is the fact that the item we have has five total uses. The Federation’s files state that evolutions using items such as the totem are classified as either major or minor evolutions. Out of seventeen Tower species for which the Federation has data on use of evolution items, including humans and Orikul, but not including Avini or Kordoths, fourteen had their first ‘major’ evolution with the second use of an evolution item. Orikul, my species, is one of the three for which that was not the case, instead having a major evolution as the first and fourth evolutions. No species on record had a first major evolution at three uses.

In order to get the best use out of the Blessed Totem, I believe it should be used by three of us, to maximize the number of major evolutions triggered. Meaning myself, since I only require one use, and two others.”

“That makes sense,” said Arvallei, “but how do we decide which two of us uses it?”

“Lheticus should be one of the others to use it,” said Anna. Even Mewi looked at her in surprise, closing his mouth and looking as though he’d been about to say the same thing. “He has basically all the credit for obtaining it. Getting the 5th Floor’s mission far enough so that he could go after it was all of us, sure, but it was his trade that got us the information on where it was, he went to retrieve it, and when he was forced to negotiate a lot of money away for it, he paid for it.”

“I agree,” said Ri’legh, “I admit I am curious what this item would have to offer me, but using it on Lheticus is most likely to give the largest increase in strength to the overall team after our captain.”

“By that logic, you’d have the last slot go to Mewi,” said Arvallei, “that would also make the strong of us even stronger—he's now the only one of us who possesses a Gold class—and he also gave up the majority of his money from the 5th Floor for it just like Lheticus did.”

“I think that would be too imbalanced,” said Mewi quickly, “I mean, I just got a Gold class, I’m already way stronger than I was. It might imbalance the party’s strength if I get a major evolution so soon too.”

“If you don’t want it, then I’ll buy your slot,” said Anna, shockingly quickly herself, “making a party’s healer stronger is never a bad decision.” She took out her own G1 coin from the 5th Floor. “I’ll pay full price.” It was only a symbolic gesture since we were in the virtual space.

With the smirk she had on her face saying this, I was pretty certain of another Conjecture. “You planned that from the moment you said I should take the second slot, didn’t you?”

“Pretty much,” said Anna, completely unapologetic, “so,” turning to Mewi, “did it work?”

Mewi laughed. “Sure you can have it.”

“All right,” said Arvallei, folding his wing-arms, “but when we get our hands on another evolution item, I call dibs on the first use!”

Everyone laughed at that. “All right then,” said Bruzigan, “if no one has any other objections, Lheticus will use the Blessed Totem first, then Anna, then I’ll go last.”

“Wait, why me first?”

“That is related to the next item of the debriefing. Before calling you all in, I spent time in communication with the marshal regarding our next move.”

Bruzigan made his serious face at us. “As you all know, our original plan was to clear through the 9th Floor, then proceed to the Sanctuaries. Along the way, we’ve been liberating many worlds from the Kinetice, both to increase our AP and as a cover for our true mission.

However, this cover is mostly intended to fool the public. There is little doubt that our enemies, now calling themselves the Anti-Federation League, have some idea, at least at their highest levels, that we intend to come for the Sanctuaries sooner or later.

While the AFL has been thwarted consistently at its attempts to destroy, damage or capture major Federation assets and locations, the Federation has lost ground substantially in the arena of public opinion. Our system liberation efforts, as they were slowly able to be followed up by more widespread efforts by pro-federation factions and the Federation military in those regions, have helped a little, but the simple fact is that the Federation has never had close to enough manpower to be everywhere at once in Area 1.

A large number of systems, even a substantial quantity of entire Zones, are simply out of the Federation’s reach to save from the Kinetice. In that absence, the AFL has reached out to a large number of worlds, offering protection, or in some cases imposing it and their own order.”

I couldn’t let that go without comment. “Protection from the threat they caused! These assholes could teach the world I’m from a thing or two about shameless power-grabs.”

Bruzigan gave me a grim nod. “Indeed. If this is allowed to continue for long enough, if enough worlds become and remain in favor to them, the AFL could indeed become a superpower of equal puissance to the Federation. If that happens, it is highly doubtful that they’ll stop there.”

“Because of these factors, it is the judgment of Marshal Varstithon that spending 10 months repeating the 7th Floor, while it would increase our team’s overall strength tremendously, constitutes an unacceptable delay in our primary mission. Unless...”

I thought I knew what Bruzigan’s serious face was, but the look he gave me now could have killed an entire army of clowns. “Unless Lheticus, as the first of us to undergo racial evolution, restores the Fire Sanctuary immediately following his major evolution.”